Westwind

*chuckles*

Hey @ZetaOne and @Halmont, remember this? ZetaOne Posts 574 Advanced Member Halmont Posts 207 Advanced Member

PS: I don't know who was admin on the S8 TWP forums, but maybe someone could restore this old bit of TWP history..... http://z8.invisionfree.com/The_West_Pacific/index.php? "All zIF/ZB forums were migrated to Tapatalk. To restore your forum, please send your board URL to support@tapatalk.com to request for a late migration."

Nice to see you 'round

*chuckles* I've no doubt! In the US, some people did very well, and some did very poorly. The economy didn't soar as some would make it seem, instead it fell back several times. I remember the storefronts suddenly going empty across the cities a couple times. The music sucked. Government spending to defeat the Soviets provided jobs, but took it's toll by taking resources from other parts of the economy. The Decade of Greed wasn't universal, it was only a section that flaunted it with their suits and cocaine which Hollywood loves to portray, the corruption of the Keating Five, Iran/Contra, 1987 Black Friday market crash, Savings and Loan crisis..... A friend of mine and I were driving around downtown Kansas City in the '80's and we noticed these businessmen marching around the sidewalks in their grey suits as if they owned the world. We'd try to talk to them or at least get their attention. They wouldn't even respond to saying a simple 'Hi!" The thing that finally got their attention? We called out "Dollar Bills!" and they all turned their heads in unison to look our way. It was hilarious. Silly human race. These businessmen walking shoulder to shoulder, three people wide.....we decided that The Who nailed it. "Eminence Front. It's a put on." (the rhythm/beat of the song perfectly matched the businessmens purposeful steps) *winks*

The Ambassador sign-up thread is here:

We waste bits and bytes instead of breath. Welcome to TWP!

That would be a good thing, I'd think. *chuckles* Bunch of rogues......The Syndicate (oh wait, a region already did that), The Western Cartel. The Rogue Gallery of The West Pacific.... I don't know if anyone knew this, but once upon a time I was looking to establish a Rogue Pirate military, sailing across all the Pacifics, unaffiliated with any of them. There were two or three missions these unknown Pirates engaged in across The Pacifics, but never really got fully off the ground. I smiled when TWPAF went Pirate, I was proud of you all. Exactly. Of course, if The Delegate wishes to pursue a process/debate/choice beyond that.......that's The Delegate's choice too. On the other hand, if.... And no pink with purple polka dots WFE. I see a region that does that and I immediate click elsewhere. Have some respect for your viewer/readers and be easy on the eyes. Yup. You'll be sorry. You'll be frustrated. NS isn't worth the high blood pressure. I tend agree with this. I'm still waiting for a presentation of sufficient cause for change, and where that change might apply, how it will be applied...... Although, had the Delegate simply announced "here is our new Theme!" I'd accept the Delegate wanting a change as reason enough. (That doesn't mean I'd agree with or like the change) I can't fully address this, I'm not on Discord so I don't know what the real activity level is here. Also, the period of the Holidays into February is always slow. The ebb and flow of NS. A theme change isn't sufficient to drive activity to combat staleness. Action is what drives change, and that action comes from the region's Leaders, not the theme. Partially why Pirates is worth considering.....the military is active, the military is Pirate. I don't see that theme being promulgated on the RMB or via mass TG, so it feels detached from the region as a whole. Integrating Pirate into the theme would meld the two together better in player's minds. (Psychology), tying the civilian and the military into a whole. Whenever the civilian government is closely tied to the military and military/diplomatic activities, it drives interest and activity. When a civilian government begins to ignore it's military, it will progressively go inactive. Unless is has another strong area (such as RP) to supplant the military activity. There does seem to be less interaction with the region ingame these days. And obviously little interaction on the forum. I don't do Discord, so I have no idea there. I feel like Non-Discord players have been locked out of activity by the regional Oligarchies. Never ever EVER EVER allow a higher legislative body. NEVER. If it has no power, no one will participate - there will be nothing to do. If it has too much power, I guarantee you will eventually have a conflict with the Delegate. This is where the balancing act of TWP comes into play. Let's not go to RL national themes at all. The Rising Sun of the TWP flag used to bother me all by itself as it was too suggestive of WWII Japan. I'm old, grew up with those veterans, knew WWI vets. My grandfathers were both considered National Security assets, my daughter's maternal great grandfather was a private American citizen, captured as a POW by the Japanese and he died in malnourished captivity, his body never recovered. (I knew a US Civil War vet - at his 100th birthday he said of his imprisonment as a POW that the prisoners "ate as well as the guards. All we had to eat was grasshoppers.") Although no NS theme insulted me more than The NPO's Soviet theme. Made me sick to my stomach after growing up at nuclear ground zero for the Cold War. Let's not promote RL murderous regimes (such as Imperial Japan, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany.....). I lived through that time, the 80's sucked. Don't do 70's Japan, back then Japan was known for flimsy cheap throw away products. (Like China is known for now). *chuckles* I like your flag design best of the choices, but I don't like it's color scheme. I'd prefer to keep our flag, or alter it slightly, than a wholesale change. I won't like it, whatever it is, if the theme design abandons our 15 year flag.

A Model United Nations sounds like fun. Once upon a time long ago when I was in High School, there was a Student Congress that competed at Forensics meets across the state. I was the Lead of my school's House Delegation, and served as Presiding Officer most meets. It was a blast. Unfortunately, most meets were required to go by Sequential Debate rather than Open Debate - I performed better with Open Debate. I remember writing Legislation on Decriminalization of Victimless Crimes and Judicial System Reform among others. In NS, I would suggest participation in regional Legislatures/Assemblies, debates in the General Assembly/Security Council World Assembly forums ingame, and signing up as an Ambassador. Good luck to you, and welcome!

*nods, rocks, rambles* During The Crimson Order operations, one of the possible paths we prepared was the restoration of ADN. I owned the domain name (PH gave it to me), created a new forum. We controlled two of the three largest regional former ADN militaries (TNP/Equilism) and I had an insider in Nasicournia (ADN foudning region) ready to declare alliance with us if I triggered that option. TWP had both defender and raider armies, and the TWP Minister of the defender army was a former Equilism Military Minister, so I expect TWP would have participated in some way. Those four regions were the four pillars of ADN. I could have been the Defender hero rather than villian. (Of course, all that had to be kept secret from the others we were working with such as Gatesville, The Last Kingdom, LKE....) I had three or four very different options mapped out and prepared. If TNP Admin Grosse /Flem hadn't refused to change the North Pacific Army forum name ("OMG West is going to turn us raider because he's changing the name!" *rollseyes*)- thus blocking me and violating the TNP constitution, Crimson Order would have turned out entirely differently. And Grosse and Flem would have been happy about the results. Instead they assumed my intentions incorrectly. Screwed themselves over based on their own metal projections. (Yes, yes....I encouraged those perceptions of course) TNP should stop calling me a rogue delegate. I was duly elected and It was TNP forum admin that violated the constitution, giving me no choice but to abandon the forum. I was duly elected and the constitution gave me full authority. Ah well. These days, TNP Admin Elu, who stole the TNP Delegacy from me, was recently asking for my help with TNP's forum move from Tapatalk. I'll never get credit though (I think it's ironic. Demonize me and ask for me help. Wasn't the first time.) Of course, there was the time when The Pacific asked for my help, and I never got credit for that either. I think The Pacific should hire me as Emperor and Delegate, I have a good resume for the job. *chuckles* I've been planning my NS death for five years. It's very close now. Unless The Pacific wants to hire me as Delegate. I won't hold my breath. Thank you! I have the ability to post in the Hall, but I don't because I'm not a citizen. Besides, I can ramble a bit off topic here, as thread jacking is traditional in TWP. "Dragons coming out of the sea, Shimmering silver head of wisdom looking at me. He brings down the fire from the skies, You can tell he's doing well by the look in human eyes. Better not compromise. It won't be easy."

More old Graphics....I'll spoiler them to spare the thread.

And never forget The Klingon Empire of The West Pacific! And TWP is Legendary:

I changed themes two or three times during my Delegacy. We started out sort of Dune based with the Laandstrad for the Assembly. But no one could remember how to spell it. *chuckles* Later went to the Sacred Order of The West Pacific and The West Pacific Imperium. Policies stayed the same, graphics stayed the same. The theme is just a costume you put on In the end, it's delegate's choice IMO. I mearly added to titles for my themes, so a Minister became Holy Minister and a Guardian became a Cardinal Guardian. In Equilism we went through a period when we changed the theme with each government. By the time they'd gotten to a Game of Thrones theme, they lost me as I didn't know anything about it (still don't) - so was all meaningless to me. Houses, titles, all irrelevant and confusing to me. I like the dragon imagery in the graphics proposal. You can tie that to TWP having had two Delegates associated with Dragons. You could take the Eagle and Crossbones flag and replace the Eagle with a Dragon. I gotta admit, I haven't been fond of TWPAF flags for some time. I think folks are too resistant to making use of the ingame polling. This would still be somewhat restrictive, but it would cast a wider net than the forum and still would be secure: Set the poll to both Native and Large Nation - it will prevent nations from other regions jumping in to vote, and prevent new founded nations from voting. (A nation would have to be about 6 months old to vote...a nation voting age requirement based on game mechanics). You could even form a bi-cameral legislature: ingame based on those polling rules (House), and Hall of Peers voting (Senate), Delegate has veto authority. Although, having a bi-cameral legislature is what got TWP into trouble before. The Senate becomes and exclusionary old boys club that eventually goes inactive and blocks the Delegate (I've seen this movie before) *chuckles* Nothing. I've championed more open citizenship, and removed citizenship oaths when I was delegate. It was never a problem. I haven't been a TWP citizen since oaths were reintroduced. So I'm just being me.

Hmmmm. My first impression: Any theme needs to incorporate traditional TWP. My second impression: Change can be good, and a theme can be a rallying point. But change for the sake of change is useless. *reads other thread* My third impression: These theme proposals don't speak to me. There's nothing wrong with them. But I don't want to live in a Russia or China themed region, I want to live in The West Pacific which has nothing to do with those. Be Original, be TWP. A pirate theme works.....it's not nationality/location specific. An imperial theme works....if it's not RL nation based... TWP should be TWP themed. My fourth impression: None of my prior impressions matter. Doesn't the government represent all those gameside nations too? I refuse to sign an oath to prove I'm active in a region. So my opinion has no weight.

I designed a TWP ambassador credentials page a few years back. twp_ambassador_credentials - bbb.pdf